🚀 go-pugleaf

I received numerous requests to let people know if I was successful in
upgrading my old '040 Cube by using the Optical disk and building it clean.

Here's the results:  (Thanks to those who sent helpful advice)

I ran UpGrade.app on the Cube which installed a new sdmach.  This allows
the Cube to mount the CDROM drive.  I had a friend put my Upgrade.app
on an optical and then copied to my Cube via the OD.

Then reboot with the CDROM attached.  Then put in an initialized optical disk.

The whole key is to get the right boot block onto your optical disk.  For
some reason I ended running disk(8) in interactive mode and when it asked
for a boot block I said:

/NeXTSTEP_3.0/usr/standalone/boot.cdrom 

This writes the boot.cdrom file from the 3.0CDROM (which should be available
in the Workspace, i.e. mounted) onto your optical disk.  Then logout and get
into the ROM monitor.  Here you just say bod, which tells the machine to boot
from the optical.

The new boot block tells the system to look at the CDROM.  The boot sequence 
ends in a ROM monitor-like window telling you its ready to install 3.0
essentials and that it will wipe your hard disk clean.  After several warnings
and answering "yes" to "Are you sure?" it went chugging away for about 2hrs.

At the end, I rebooted and installed extension packages via installer in 
my new 3.0 environment.  :)  

I guess I have nothing to compare it to, but it seems only slightly slower than
before I upgraded.  I only have 8 megs of ram.  :(

If you have any specific questions send them through e-mail, I'd be happy
to help.  And apologies to the NeXT and Unix gurus out there if this post
contains utterly obvious instructions.

Later,

Chris Conley
NeXTSTEP Interface and Interaction Design
Chicago


"It's all just a bunch of stuff that happens.."

                                      - Homer Simpson